Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a British-born Ghanaian poet.

Early life and education

Bulley is of Ghanaian heritage, born and brought up in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. In 2019, she was awarded a Techne scholarship for doctoral work at

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

. An alumna of

The Complete Works The complete works of an artist, writer, musician, group, etc., is a collection of all of their cultural works. For example, '' Complete Works of Shakespeare'' is an edition containing all the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. A ''Complete ...

poetry mentoring programme initiated by

Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, (born 28 May 1959) is a British author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'', jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first woman with Black ...

, Bulley has held residencies internationally in the US, Brazil, and at the V&A.

Writing

Bulley's writing has been published in works including ''Rising Stars: New Young Voices in Poetry'' (Otter-Barry Books, 2017, ), ''Ten: Poets of the New Generation'' (Bloodaxe Books, 2017, ), ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', and ''

The White Review ''The White Review'' is a London-based magazine on literature and the visual arts. It is published in print and online. History ''The White Review'' was founded by editors Benjamin Eastham and Jacques Testard, and released its first issue in p ...

''. She produced the Mother Tongues intergenerational project, in which poets worked with their mothers to translate their poetry into their mother-tongues. Bulley's 2017 debut pamphlet ''Girl B'' was published by

Akashic Books Akashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher. Akashic Books' collection began with Arthur Nersesian's ''The Fuck Up'' in 1997, and has since expanded to include Dennis Cooper's "Little House on the Bowery" series, Chris Abani's Black ...

and included in the collection ''New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set'' ().

Karen McCarthy Woolf Karen McCarthy Woolf (born 1966) is a poet of English and Jamaican parentage. Early life and education Karen McCarthy Woolf was born in London to English and Jamaican parents. Her father emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1957 as a part of the ...

called it "a probing, thoughtful, and quietly exhilarating debut". Her first book collection, ''Quiet'' (2022), was praised in the ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'' as "clever and capacious poems" and described in ''

'' as "mark ngthe arrival of a major poetic talent".

Recognition

Bulley won a 2018

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by British poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. In 2021, the seven ...

. ''Quiet'' was shortlisted for the 2022

T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize that was, for many years, awarded by the Poetry Book Society (UK) to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Priz ...

and won the 2023

Folio Prize The Rathbones Folio Prize, previously known as the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017 the sponsor is ...

for poetry. Bulley also won the 2023

John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize The John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize is an annual award for "an outstanding debut poetry book collection by a poet, in the English language". The award is of 10,000 Euros and is restricted to single-authored books of at least 4 ...

for ''Quiet''.

Selected publications

References

External links

Author profile
on Faber website
Interview, 2022
with ''Poetry London'' Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Black British women writers Black British writers British women poets English people of Ghanaian descent Ghanaian poets Writers from Essex {{UK-poet-stub